Electronic devices may contain an electronic calendar application to aid the user in managing their schedules. The electronic calendar application is an electronic version of a hardcopy calendar where the user manually writes information about appointments into the hardcopy calendar. With the electronic calendar application, information pertaining to user appointments may be entered or modified in a variety of manners, such as from a manual entry made by the user, a remote entry by another party, or from another remote electronic calendar application.
Additionally, the electronic calendar application may provide logic for other functions, such as, but not limited to, an appointment book, address book, and/or contact list. These functional tools are an extension of many of the features provided by time management software such as desk accessory packages and computer office automation systems. Calendaring is a standard feature of many electronic devices, such as, but not limited to, desktop computers, laptop computers, notebook computers, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), enterprise digital assistants (EDAs), cell phones, smart phones, and smart watches (watches having a user input means). Electronic calendar applications may also be implemented in one or more components of a media presentation system, such as a media device that receives and presents content to the user.
The electronic calendar application may generate calendar graphics which resemble physical calendars. Such calendar graphics may show months, days, and/or time periods of a day. The generated calendar graphics are presented to the user, or to another viewer, on a display. The display may be a component of the electronic device, or may be a component of a display device that is communicatively coupled to the electronic device.
Further, the generated calendar graphics may indicate various types of appointments that the user has on their schedule. Calendar appointments may include various information to assist the user in understanding the nature of their appointment. For example, appointment information may include a defined time period for the scheduled appointment, such as the start date and start time of the appointment, and optionally a duration and/or end time of the appointment. The appointment information may include a textual description of the appointment, such as information describing the purpose, topic, subject matter of the appointment. The names of other parties that may be present at the appointment may be indicated. The address and/or other location information indicating where the appointment is to be held may be included in the appointment information. Contact information, such as the name of the location or a phone number, may also be included in the appointment information.
The electronic calendar application may be configured to generate appointment reminders which are communicated to or presented to the user. Such reminders are typically generated in advance of a scheduled appointment by one or more predefined durations, and/or may be generated at the time that the appointment is scheduled to start. For example, an audible tone may be emitted as the scheduled appointment start time approaches and/or arrives. Additionally, or alternatively, if the user is viewing the display, a pop-up type reminder may be presented to the user. Reminders may even be communicated from the device executing the electronic calendar application to another device that the user, or another person, may be using.
In many situations, the user may wish to perform other activities, either concurrently with the scheduled appointment or instead of the scheduled appointment. For example, the user may have wanted to be at their residence watching and/or listening to a media content event of interest on their media presentation system instead of attending the scheduled appointment. In many situations, the user may have realized the schedule conflict between the presentation times of the program event of interest and the start time and/or end time of the scheduled appointment, and may have therefore manually configured their media presentation system to automatically record the program event of interest for later viewing and/or listening. Unfortunately, in some situations, the user may not realize that there is a schedule conflict between the program event of interest and the scheduled appointment, and may forget or not know to schedule the media content event of interest for recording. In these situations, the media content event of interest may not be recorded for later viewing.
Accordingly, there is a need in the arts to improve the ability of a user to more efficiently and more reliably coordinate operation of their media presentation system with appointment information that is managed by one or more electronic calendar applications.